[7thaccount]

I also can't imagine a home robotics use case that I would get excited over. Can anyone think of anything? I would guess any new product would be more complex, less efficient, and a security risk. It'll be cool and trendy for a few months and then die off. Just like the Alexa and Google speakers that can tell you the weather or adjust your lights...is it REALLY that useful outside of entertaining your nieces and nephews? My guess is that they'll make some revenue from collecting user data and selling it to data brokers or something.

Edit: someone below said laundry folding robot. I'd see that as useful.

[judah]

The company that builds a robot that can do household chores will be very, very rich.

I want a bot that can do laundry (load washer, load dryer, fold, put away), do the dishes (rinse, put in dishwasher, put clean dishes away, wash pots & pans), vacuum floors, dust, clean up messes, empty garbage bins, take out the trash, mow my lawn, trim bushes, clean tables, mop floors, make meals, cleans toilets and sinks and bathrooms.

Currently myself and my wife split these duties, and kids help a bit. But it's still a ton of work for us. I would love to offload all that and more to a robot.

[tkgally]

Exactly. And add one more thing: Help with the care of the elderly and invalids.

As it happens, I turned sixty-seven today. While I am in good shape now, it's reasonable to assume that I might need personal care at some point in the not too distant future. A humanoid robot assistant that could handle many of those tasks would be great.

I have no idea when or whether that will become possible, though.

[another2another]

If there was a smallish vehicle (thing? I'm thinking johnny #5) that could:

hold and carry things you give it (without spilling), and carry then set them down where you ask.

or pick things up from the ground for you.

Then that would probably be a great help for lots of older people.

I'm not that old myself, but I've seen lots of older people who are otherwise self-sufficient struggle with some of these things as mobility starts to suffer.

If it could also talk to you and give sass back, then that would also be a bonus.

[freitzkriesler2]

Pretty much this. We pay a cleaning service for the privilege to vacuum and dust.

A robot that does it for me that I can buy for $15k and last a decade? Id be all over it.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

Robots can already vacuum and mop floors pretty decently for <$2k.

No one is building a robot to dust your antique china collection anytime soon.

[freitzkriesler2]

Meh those robots don't do a good job with young children . The amount of debris they have to work around isn't worth it.

[duped]

Maids will be cheaper than robots for at least a decade

[PopePompus]

I don't want to pay someone to clean up my messes. That is not the kind of relationship I want to have with another human. But I'd happily pay for a machine that did it.

[duped]

I understand that this is coming from a place of privilege, but I was raised with regular maid service cleaning our home as a child and it's just something you learn to live with. You pick up after yourself for the easy things like throwing out garbage and picking up your clothes on the floor so the maids can do the heavy work like deep cleaning everything that's not in the way. And it's not necessarily unaffordable for biweekly cleaning.

You don't hire a maid service to clean up after you, you do it because they do a better job at all the stuff you really don't want to.

[swat535]

You would literally be making the same argument for any other breakthrough tech:

Why invent a dishwasher? You can have someone do it! Why have automated elevators? You can have someone do it! Why have automated farming systems? You can hire cheap Mexicans to do it!

We like to invent technologies to help make people's lives easier.

[fragmede]

That person doesn't have a better job available to them though, so without that job, you're sentencing them to destitution, which seems like a worse outcome for them. Fortunately you don't have to see it though.

[wdh505]

Are you willing to pay for privacy as a premium?

[duped]

I don't think whatever Silicon Valley cooks up will be more private than a human who has fallible memory

[layer8]

Human-sized robots (arguably needed for some of the tasks you list, being able to walk stairs, etc.) will be creepy due to how physically imposing they’ll be, and with a risk of being dangerous due to how massive they’ll need to be. For example falling over due to malfunction/collision/tripping, and potentially crushing a small child. I don’t see such a product happening for home use.

[bobbylarrybobby]

If a robot is adept at washing dishes and folding laundry, it suggests our technology is good enough that they should have a decent shot at remaining upright indefinitely, or falling gracefully and righting themselves afterwards.

[PopePompus]

Perhaps the entire kitchen sink could be redesigned with robotic dish washing in mind. No bipedal Boston Dynamics style robot washing your dishes and taking out the trash - just two arms built into the sink with automated drains and soap dispensing to wash dishes, put them in a rack, and do nothing else. I'd pay quite a bit for that.

[jdlshore]

How is that different than a dishwasher? The problem is collecting the dishes and putting them away, not washing them. Unless you’re imagining something to scrub pots and pans?

[PopePompus]

I think that in reality, most people do a very light pre-wash of many dishes, before loading them into the dishwasher. I know I do. I'd be happier if I could just stick the plates in the sink, and come back an hour later to find the dishes, pots, pans and utensils drying in a rack.

[adam_arthur]

Can just be a pair of hands and a camera on extendable/retractable wires, with a wheeled base. Probably much cheaper than making a humanoid.

[lobochrome]

Self driving cars seem tame in comparison.

[PopePompus]

I don't think so. To my knowledge, nobody has ever been killed by a Roomba. The robot problem is a lot less scary if there are essentially no life-and-death consequences for random innocent bystanders.

[fragmede]

a robot arm capable of doing the dishes is also capable enough to manipulate a knife (commonly found in kitchens) in a stabbing motion. Not intentionally, of course, but the sci-fi story of this going bad writes itself. That doesn't mean we shouldn't do it, I'll be the first in line to buy a robot arm sink dishwasher, but robotics is dangerous, even when not piloting a several ton vehicle down the road.

[nostromo]

I'm shocked by your comment. Everyone that doesn't enjoy cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, or taking out the trash would LOVE a home robot that really works.

Of course, these are very hard problems to take on -- much harder than a "smart" light switch -- but the market is absolutely there.

[CharlieDigital]

    > Everyone that doesn't enjoy cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, or taking out the trash would LOVE a home robot that really works.

We are far, far away from any of the remaining tedious parts of those things being done competently by a robot.

- Dishes: dishwashers already do the majority of the labor intensive part.

- Laundry: the washer already does the labor intensive part.

- Mowing: if you don't trust robot cars, you shouldn't trust a moving robot with blades attached.

- Taking out the trash: I don't see buying a multi-thousand dollar robot to save me the 20 seconds it takes to walk the garbage out.

Even robot vacuums are kinda terrible.

[V99]

Traversing a rectangle of grass at 2mph in a backyard is absurdly simpler than self-driving cars on open roads, and the absolute worst-case is something like a foot or pet injury.

There are multiple companies that already sell automatic lawn mowers in the $1000+ range. Some you bury a boundary wire around the target area, others figure it out with cameras.

[TheLoafOfBread]

Unless it is not a rectangle and there trees randomly in the way and wife's flowers on the sides.

[Clamchop]

Robot vacuums are great! They have limitations but they work really well within that envelope in my experience.

[fragmede]

How far is "far far away" to you? The recent robot demos (linked below) make me thing it's not that far off. I think within my lifetime, certainly. Within the decade, at most. I expect someone to announce something concrete within a couple of years.

https://www.figure.ai/

https://wholebody-b1.github.io/

https://ok-robot.github.io/

https://mobile-aloha.github.io/

[CharlieDigital]

Are those supposed to convince me that spending thousands on a robot will make my life measurably better?

Because they're not; the exact opposite in fact. That Spot missing the shoe on the first grab, being loud, and taking up more space than a German Shepard (without the floofy companionship) is case in point how far away we are.

[fragmede]

I not sure why you think I'm trying to convince you that you should spend any of your money on something you don't want.

[LightBug1]

Upvote for robot vaccums - even value ones are pretty good these days (imo)

[KerrAvon]

If they were invented today, dishwashers would be the same product but be called dish-washing robots. It's essentially what they are. Being mobile isn't essential to robotness.

[LightBug1]

AI Powered Robotic Cleansing Assistants ...

Breakthrough technology.

[7thaccount]

Thank you for being the voice of reason:)

Sure I'd like a personal robot butler to walk the dog and a dozen other annoying tasks, but apple isn't going to figure that out short of AGI or a quantum leap forward in more traditional approaches. What we're going to get is something like the Roomba, which was already useless in my tight house. I can't imagine too many things that would be relatively achievable that I would care about.

I guess I wasn't very clear above lol.

[ikekkdcjkfke]

Everything that can be automated, should be automated

[Moto7451]

Food prep.

There are already products for infants that will prep baby food. It’s harder to do something more complicated than that. Meal kit type meals that take grocery store ingredients as an input would likely do well with the well to do 30+ crowd that is in the middle of having kids and home remodels and is upset at how much delivery restaurant food they eat.

I’m definitely not projecting ;).

I think there’s likely a market for just the iBabyFood maker let along coming closer to an automated chef that’s “smarter” than buying a meal kit.

My experience with smart vacuums is that the more “AI” they add to them the worse they get. I’ve switched brands a few times and have always preferred the dumber models. I’m sure old iPhone tech and some computer vision know how would make a “Roomba killer” possible but I don’t know how many people are going to by the Beats by Dre Vacuum. Maybe a lot?

As things become more solarized a cross “platform” energy management system would be useful. Load controllers exist but often they’re tied to solar batteries or EVSEs. In my case I could avoid the cost of a panel update if there was a good system for load control that also wouldn’t upset my family. I.e. if they need to handle a transfer switch they will not be happy. More like, “if I’m running the jacuzzi and it’s winter, gate the AC but not the heat pump. If it’s summer gate the heat pump Aux heat but not the heat pump itself”

Most load controllers are focused on making a generator or battery run critical loads and don’t really work for larger more electrified homes on 200A panels.

[burkaman]

I don't personally find them exciting but robotic vacuum cleaners are pretty popular, I guess they could make an expensive one of those and be successful.

[exe34]

I imagine an ageing population with social isolation might be the golden ticket for this kind of work.

[rustcleaner]

>I also can't imagine a home robotics use case that I would get excited over.

Well, there's always the all-in-one washer/dryer combo which also does auto-foldi...

>Edit: someone below said laundry folding robot. I'd see that as useful.

I mean there is the automated chef kitchen machine the size of a large fridge which cooks dozens of meals which all intersect with the unit-prepared ingredients. Essentially a compact home version of what you'll all soon be seeing at fast food joints all over.

I myself am flipping out about Flippy™!

[hackable_sand]

Disability augments.

[ravelfan]

We need a word/concept for technology that has just slightly more utility than a Minsky/Shannon's useless machine but that small amount of utility obfuscates the actual uselessness of the technology.